Even before she arrived on the campus of Three Rivers Community College on Friday, Madison Spinelli, of Griswold, already had an idea of what it means to be a leader.

“You can’t keep your own ideas. You have to take other people’s too,” Madison, a 9-year-old fourth-grader at Griswold Elementary School, said between sessions of the 20th annual Elementary Student Leadership Conference, sponsored by the Connecticut Association of Schools.

Across the state, more than 1,400 children took part this week in the daylong event aimed at fostering communication, decision-making and critical thinking skills in children.

The conference wrapped up in Norwich on Friday after stops in Enfield, Fairfield and Waterbury.

Students from 15 schools across the region sent about 200 fourth- through sixth-graders on Friday.

Dave Maloney, the association’s assistant executive director, said the annual conference has helped develop thousands of new leaders in Connecticut schools over the past two decades.

“There’s an ethos of caring for others, compassion and service that we’ve been seeing growing exponentially over the last few years,” he said. “It’s amazing the level of skill set that’s coming out of classrooms.”

Many of Friday’s workshops challenged students to solve problems using nontraditional means. In one instance, children were asked to arrange themselves in order based on their birthdays without talking.

In another room, three groups huddled around a table building structures out of drinking straws — each operating under different parameters. One group had a designated leader who was asked by a teacher to be assertive and set the rules.

Another was tasked with picking its own leader.

Diana Amara, a school counselor at Chester Elementary School, said teachers planned to hold a breakfast next week with students who attended Friday’s conference, where they’ll discuss ways to spread newly learned leadership skills into all classrooms.

Madison Dawley, 10, a fifth-grader at Montville’s Mohegan Elementary School, said attending Friday’s conference gave her more confidence.

“Being a leader, you can start something with people you don’t know,” she said.

Mary Ellen Giard, an interventionist at Griswold Elementary School, has seen how the conference has impacted students who have attended over the years.

“I think it’s really important because years ago, kids didn’t have people to help develop those leadership skills,” she said. “They had to figure them out on their own.”